The field of the invention is systems and methods for the segmentation of anatomy in medical images, and for the analysis of those segmentations. More particularly, the invention relates to systems and methods for nerve segmentation in images acquired with magnetic resonance imaging (“MRI”).
Nerve segmentation is an attractive clinical goal because allowing clinicians to accurately and non-invasively visualize the three-dimensional structure of a nerve can improve surgical planning and guidance, as well as improve treatment and diagnosis of pathologies associated with a nerve.
Recently, a nerve segmentation technique was described in co-pending U.S. Patent Application No. 2014/0328529. This technique allows rapid and accurate segmentation of a nerve volume from a magnetic resonance image volume, or series of contiguous magnetic resonance images. There remains a need, however, to provide clinical utility to the visualization of a segmented nerve volume. For instance, it is desirable to provide a visualization of regions in a segmented nerve volume that may be associated with suspected inflammation or other pathology, such as demyelination.